I have been very busy of late. Over the weekend I was painting, or to be honest I was watching more than helping. But I did some of the work. While I was doing this I decided I wanted a beer, an unusual event for me. I walked to the store to buy myself a Corona. I had put on one of many Romney T-shirts to do the painting in. I didn’t change my clothes before I walked to the package store.

As I am walking and minding my own business, some guy comes up to me and says “This is Obama/Biden Country”.

I couldn’t resist. My retort:

“Oh, well that explains why I have been unable to find a job for the past seven months.”

I was very interested to see the reaction he would get. It was a good one. I also did want to hear what he wanted to say. I think he is a good man, I don’t think he was right for the nomination, but still a good solid family man with a moral compass.

It was a good speech, but I would like to see him go away; he isn’t the standard bearer the GOP needs.

During the election, the more I heard about Romney, the more I liked him. He was not my choice, by far, but he was a damn site better than what we have in the WH now.

That being said, I think Mitt needs to just fade back to the private sector and continue on his way to being the billionaire that many said he would be now, had he not given up his salary for 20-something years of public service.

I`d like to see Mitt put in charge of rehabbing a large Dem destroyed city, like Detoilet, to show just how his methods really do work ! Success in that venture could go a long way to reverse dependance on gooberment and allegiance to “the party of the people” !

Obviously I am very disappointed in the results from election night. So much so, that I really have not had the heart to even write this. But, Kathleen Parker got me out of that and quickly too.

The truth is, Romney was better than the GOP deserved. Party nitwits undermined him, and the self-righteous tried to bring him down. The nitwits are well-enough known at this point — those farthest-right social conservatives who couldn’t find it in their hearts to keep their traps shut. No abortion for rape or incest? Sit down.Legitimate rape? Put on your clown suit and go play in the street.

Equally damaging were the primary leeches who embarrassed the party and wouldn’t leave the stage. Nine-nine-nine, we’re talking about you, Herman Cain. And Gov. Oops? You, too. And then there were Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, who never had a real shot at the nomination and certainly could never win a national election, yet they refused to surrender to the certain nominee.

Did they have a right to persist in their own fantasies? Sure. But not if they were serious about getting a Republican in the White House. Thus, for months and months, Romney had to spend his energy and, as important, his money to prevail in the primaries against opponents who had no chance and who ultimately hurt him. During that same precious time, Obama’s campaign was busy pinpointing specific voters, practically learning the names of their dogs, and buying ads in niche markets.

Wow, so it is my fault. Not that I am even “furthest right” when it comes to social issues. I have made no bones about it, I didn’t like Mitt Romney as the nominee. I have been saying for over a year that had he got the nomination he would lose. I didn’t even think that because of his wishy washiness on social issues. To me social issues are not really the purview of the federal government, and I don’t care which side is trying to make the case that they are. You cannot legislate your sense of morality onto someone else, it comes from within. That said, people still want to see that you have core convictions.

I also have seen many of the more moderate republicans all across social media blaming the tea party and SoCons. Really? I will say it again, I didn’t like Romney as the nominee. I didn’t want to vote for him. When push came to shove, I went out and I did it. Not only did I vote for him, I went out and worked my ass off trying to get him elected. I spent the final six weeks of the cycle on trains, planes, and automobiles crisscrossing the country from swing state to swing state. I spent 7 to 8 hours per day knocking on doors, then spend another few hours making phone calls. I did this in close to freezing temperatures and pouring rain one more than one occasion. I slept in hotel that I had to keep changing rooms because of bugs. Don’t tell me that I didn’t take one for the team.

Every Tea Party minded person I know personally did similar things as well. Americans for Prosperity, one of the tea party umbrella groups, helped get people like me out to swing states. Do you think that Romney was their initial choice? Not likely, but we will never know as they don’t endorse candidates. But, you still saw them working night and day on the GOTV effort. Like me, they understood the stakes.

Now, what did the squishy middle do? Were they there? Did the same people who are throwing this blame around at people like me get out from in front of their computers and make the same personal sacrifices that I made? Many of the ones that I know didn’t. They sat around posting things through social media to people who already agreed with them. Boy, that was helpful.

One thing that was proven without a doubt is that the moderate wing of the party cannot the presidency without the crazies from the far right. To the people who believe that all life is sacred and is worth fighting for. I will admit that some go too far for my tastes. I refuse to engage with people who show horrific pictures of dead babies and ask me if I think it is ok to rip babies out of their mothers wombs. That is emotional blackmail. But, if you think that same tactic isn’t used on the left you are sadly mistaken. They take one person out 45,000 that has some obscure sob story and then tries to pass a law that forces everyone in the country to change their life in order to accommodate their plea of the day. While of course the opposite is true as well. But I am sick to death of hearing that I caused the loss of the senate and I am somehow personally responsible for Romney’s loss.

I was there, I was in a tightly contested county in a swing state on election day. No kidding, they had me knocking on doors that already had literature on it. I called and told them that this was happening. I was told to just keep going. I walked seven miles on election day, going door to door. At one point I had to find a woody area so I could go to the bathroom because I knew that one of the drivers wouldn’t be able to get me in time, I was so far out from the victory office. Luckily I had napkins with me.

After returning from day of door knocking I was making calls all day. I was calling Minnesota. You know what, 3 out 5 calls were wrong numbers due to bad area codes. How the heck is that my fault? Didn’t the campaign bother to update the phone lists? Apparently not. The campaign is denying the story of software they created for the GOTV effort, but I can tell it was true, at least in Ohio. It wasn’t working properly.

Where was the Romney campaign in Wisconsin? Why didn’t they use the popularity of Paul Ryan as the hometown boy with the all the advantages they had with Governor Walker’s grassroots efforts? They didn’t put enough resources in that state. That is my fault how?

I am sick to death of hearing that my voice shouldn’t matter in the party. That my views are somehow less important than theirs. That I should be giving up on my principles to tack left. Because heaven knows that is what the democrats do when they lose elections. They moderate.

I happen to believe that we need immigration reform in this country. But I am not willing to sell out my principles in order to get it. The facts are President Reagan signed immigration reform decades ago, did that help bring Hispanics into the party? No it did not. Did the democratically controlled congress keep their end of the bargain? If they had we wouldn’t have millions more in the country. Read the law that Reagan signed Ms. Parker. The borders were supposed to be secured. The law was supposed to go after employers that violated the law by giving any additional positions to illegals, oh excuse me, undocumented workers. None of that has happened. So I am supposed to put my trust into the democrats doing the same again? I guess if I am stupid I should.

What people like you Ms. Parker are really saying is that my views matter so little that I should be just cast aside. Lets also take a stroll down memory lane of the past few GOP presidential candidates. McCain, a moderate. Dole, a moderate, Bush I who governed as a moderate and destroyed the yacht industry while president. An industry that all these decades that has never come back, and never will. Thanks to his “luxury” tax thousands upon thousands lost their jobs, companies went out of business, and America, once the #1 exporter of said yachts is now the #1 importer. The industry died and it cost the tax payers millions and millions of dollars. Yes, that is the leadership that the right should be looking for.

President Bush 2 is the only one of them that was ran as conservative unabashedly. He was successful not just once, but twice. Now, he still ended up with big government polices and spent money like a drunken sailor (sorry to all you drunken sailors) that has gotten us to the point where we are now. Above and beyond all the money and the big government policies that President Bush promoted and acted upon during his presidency, his biggest sin was acting like you are suggesting. He rolled over and allowed the left to control the narrative. He didn’t fight back on all the lies. He felt that the presidency shouldn’t be used in that way. While in theory I agree with him on that. I, to have a great deal of respect for the office of the presidency, but times have changed. We have 24 hour news cycles and cable channels that do nothing but spit out a point of view and will use lies if necessary to promote their agenda. That must be countered and countered hard. His refusal to do it, is a big part of the reason we even have a President Obama. So no, Ms. Parker I reject your advice. The protection of religious liberties matter. I will fight for them from shore to shore in this country. The word marriage has meaning. If gay marriage was simply about benefits, the problems would have been solved years ago. If DADT tell was simply about serving in the military we would not have seen people in uniforms marching in Gay Pride parades this year, even though that is clear violation of military code of conduct. You wouldn’t see gay couples suing conservative churches to perform marriage ceremonies. They are trying to say that my beliefs are bad, that there is something inherently wrong with them. I don’t care what a gay couple does in the privacy of their bedrooms, but I do care what they are trying to do to my church. They want tax write-offs and hospital visitation fine. But stay out of my place of worship.

Did it ever occur to you Ms. Parker that Romney was never able to make the connection to voters? Did it ever occur to you that he never gave a coherent reason of why he should be president other than he wasn’t Obama? Now that was more than enough for me, but for the low information voter it wasn’t. Most people don’t like change just for the sake of change. They will dance with the devil they know. That is part of human nature. Did it every occur to you that people in this country don’t want to elect someone who is wealthy as he is? The left, that you seem all too willing to model after, has done a great job in creating a society that wealth is a bad thing, that people with money are ogres, evil, and someone who isn’t compassionate.

People in this country want conviction Ms. Parker. Romney didn’t show that he really had that. People want real conviction because it is a sign of leadership. Stop blaming me and put the blame where it belongs, on the left who have convinced people that anyone that dares calls themselves a republican, or gasp even worse a conservative, lacks compassion and is racist. Look in the mirror Ms. Parker, because you yourself have bought into that argument.

Great rant…and sorry you went through all that. The only place I might disagree with you is saying that all those that ran with Romney were not ready to be President. Compared to what is in the White House, any of them would have been an improvement.

The Bushes, and as they call them, the Rockefeller Rhino’s CONTROL the republican party. They are globalists. (Mitt was one of them and Karl Rove helped PUT him in the nomination with his positions oon FOX.) America comes second to the global causes…and the global causes will continue.

Look how certain you were that Mitt was the only man who could compete. Do you know that for sure?

I am convinced, that Obamacare was wanted by the Rhino’s too, BECAUSE the big corporations were whining about having to compete with China and all the other countries…they want the state to take over all health care.

Do you see a pattern here? McCain..they ran him to lose…but attached a tea party person with him to get support and make us THINK that the Rhinos’ were going to be conservative. The VERY same thing was done with Mitt.

The Rhinos wanted Obama in for another four years….Tell me, why put Paul Ryan in, and then he literally disappeard. Did you noticed that Mitt didn’t look the least bit upset? Nieither did John McCain.

What’s wrong with that picture? And Boener says the “tea party” is gone?

Really?

Running Ryan and Palin with them was only to make you think that they believe in the “tea party” causes. And look what they did to Ron Paul. You didn’t hear about it, but his people were threatened and even denied notice at all the primary voting.

It’s globaization that is the plan. There is a reason that everything comes down to “one” vote.

Many American, like me, don’t buy the BS anymore. Being a ‘teaparty” suppporter of our Constitution, which have you noticed is just a piece of paper now, I am now regarded as obsolete. Notice the very next day, all the pundits on FOX were going toward amnesty, and women’s rights…

Where was the outrage? On the blogs. Which have NO power whatsoever. Presidents can start wars, send billions to other countries, while their own people suffer…

They WANT you to complain….because they know you have no power whatsoever. It’s necessary to release all that anger.

It’s all about the money…and keeping certain dynasties in power.

Will I ever vote again?

Not unless the middle of the country secedes and we start over.And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels like that.

The Chances of Obama letting that happen?

None. Remember Janet Reno.

Great women like you should now be putting all that effort into forming another start….and that start is not going to come by working for either party in power.

America as we knew it, is gone.
We can keep it in our hearts, and give in to the upcoming tyranny..
Or we can get together and decide a new course. And that course will NOT be hoping to elect “conservative” Congressmen. They have it rigged that the party leaders always make the decisions.

Newt did it. And remember, for all his conservative talk, he LOVES the Toefels…who have been writing about the social engineering of Americans for years. It’s all being done as planned, and slowly. And thier hard work has paid off…

According to my son, the people under 25 are already lost.
And that’s why Obama won.

Great rant, JACG, and I second it. The thing that we have to look at, I believe, is the way that conservative principles are expressed. The left, Alinsky-soaked and sound bite driven, have the upper hand, but we do ourselves no favors by talking over their heads. Conservatives are smarter. Period. But that isn’t enough. We need to be able to sound bite our points, and that, I fear, is where we are lacking. We keep getting drawn into these bizarre arguments (we want black “back in chains,” we want women barefoot and pregnant, in the kitchen, etc.–that’s what the left wants. What they need to push their narrative. We need to counter that by showing how and why our principles are better, how and why they lead to a freer people, to more opportunity for ALL, to a justice that is equal, not weighted by false narratives and hate. Until we manage that, we will lose.

Great rantm btw.
Have NOT watched any news … have not seen/heard any speeches or excerpts from either candidate. I have been in a foul mood since the election. It is taking time to get out of this. I blogged furiously on as many sites I could click on arrogantly putting out the truth trying to expose the lies … but it seems to no avail b/c it fell on deaf ears, blind eyes & walking-dead minds.

So … what is MY comment MY shock MY disappointment on this years election, 2012?

Somehow, I feel as if I should be apologizing for all of my positive editorials pointing to a Romney victory. But, how can I be expected to apologize for half of the American population who celebrated a GREAT victory of the TAKERS over the MAKERS?

The finger pointing has already begun with pundits analyzing what Romney should have done, and what he shouldn’t have done.

So let me give it to you straight . . . ROMNEY IS BLAMELESS. He ran a great campaign.

It is the people who blindly reelected an already FAILED American Idol who bare the blame.

From everything I’ve read, seen and heard, Mitt Romney is a very decent person who ran on a REAL platform. He spelled out what his plan was for America. And he stood firm on genuine policies that offered the American people a roadmap out of the impending disaster – towards instead . . . to American prosperity.

On the other hand, Obama promised FREE birth control pills. He promised to punish the MAKERS with higher taxes and more regulations. And he promised to give the Something-For-Nothing Bunch their FREE RIDE.

Obama won the Black vote because he’s Black. There is no question about it. NONE WHATSOEVER . . . America is a RACIST country where the Blacks vote on the basis of color.

Obama won the Hispanic vote because he promised the Hispanics the RIGHT to violate American Immigration Laws, and to give them rights and privileges unavailable to other communities.

And he won the general vote because of the lack of intelligence of the American people, a level of intelligence, which after yesterday’s election results is beyond understanding.

I’ve been hearing this morning from some Republicans on television, how the Republicans have to change their philosophy and strategy to attract more women, Blacks, and Hispanics. But, none of these people with this stupid idea have said how.

THEY SHOULD JUST SHUT-UP . . . AMERICA HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH WITH THE RINOS.

If the Republicans should decide to abandon their principles to BUY Female, Black, Hispanic and WELFARE votes, how would that make them any different from the Democrats?

HERE IS WHAT BEAT THE REPUBLICANS that would have made Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proud.

YELLOW JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST:

It would not have made any difference WHATSOEVER who the Republicans would have chosen to be their candidate, since the media would have found or created any way they could to demean him or her, to the point of OUTRIGHT Character Assassination.

It’s one thing for the media to be in the so-called tank for Obama. It’s not right, but just about everyone has a bias. But . . . having the media doing the work of lying and covering for Obama is another thing entirely.

CORRUPTION OF THE MEDIA:

The mainstream media withheld vital information from the voters. They highlighted NON-EXISTENT Obama successes, while keeping serious Obama failures from the headlines, such as how the President contributed to the murder of FOUR Americans in Benghazi . . . AND THEN LIED ABOUT IT.

The media . . . for all intent and purposes NEVER covered how Obama’s Arab Spring has become the World’s NIGHTMARE. And how Europe is already falling over the edge of the financial cliff without so much as a whisper from Obama.

Or how Iran is laughing at Obama’s America, while they work away at building their BOMB that can “WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP”, while holding the rest of the world HOSTAGE.

The media NEVER even discussed the abhorrent cost of gasoline at the pumps, the rising cost of food and essentials, laying the blame at the feet of Obama, as they surely would have, had the President been named George W Bush.

That said . . . While the media LIED outright for Obama, they also participated as willing accomplices in the never-ending series of outright lies and distortions against Romney.

THERE ARE NO POLITICAL CENTRIST OR INDEPENDENT MINDED VOTERS:

Like most people, I was expecting those Centrist and Independent minded voters to come in huge numbers to Romney’s side. But that never happened. And it didn’t happen because there really are no Centrist or Independent-minded voters.

There are people who like to define themselves as Centrist and Independent because it makes them feel special, where in reality, they are on the LEFT pretending to be something they are not.

THEN THERE’S POLITICAL LEADERS LIKE CHRIS CHRISTIE:

Chris Christie HELPED Romney lose this election by telling all of America’s population how proud he was of PRESIDENT Barack Obama, for being such a great President and UNIFIER during the hurricane crisis.

Just for giving Obama this ENDORSEMENT during such a critical time . . . Christie should never be forgiven.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE:

The following are KEY issues at the top of Obama’s agenda from the first day he won office in 2008, that he will now push for with every fiber of his being.

1 – Obamacare will destroy the world’s best healthcare system, while spending Americans into the poorhouse, as he moves to fully eliminate private insurance options.

2 – There will be CARD-CHECK, giving the Unions unfettered power over the MAKERS.

3 – The Media Fairness Doctrine will become a part of FCC regulations that will go a long way to muting Conservative voices.

4 – Fewer manufacturers will set-up shop in America.

5 – Businesses of all sizes will focus almost entirely on reducing the size of staff to avoid the astronomical costs of providing employment.

6 – Unemployment will rise significantly.

AND THEN THERE ARE THE REGULATING CZARS AND EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

THE OBAMA SUPREME COURT . . . Perhaps one of the MOST damaging long-term results of this election victory for the LEFT, will be the NEW Supreme Court that will be appointed by Obama, that will push the Court FURTHER to the LEFT than anyone can imagine.

In essence . . . what we witnessed last night . . . is nothing short of the irreversible step towards the end of the American DREAM and that Shining City On That Hill.

SO WHAT DO FREEDOM LOVING CONSERVATIVES DO?

As a result of this election – a whole new strategy by Conservatives WORLDWIDE must be developed, where people who believe in INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS opposed to Socialist COLLECTIVIST RIGHTS, must come together to separate ourselves from the masses.

THE REVOLUTION STARTED YESTERDAY:

Like just about EVERY Conservative, I was sickened watching the returns, thinking to myself . . . What the HELL?

Why should I even bother to write and fight to the point of personal sacrifice, when more than half of the people are so ignorant of consequences in search of COLLECTIVISM and intrusive government, that they WILLINGLY threw their country under Obama’s Bus?

When that New York SCREWBALL Mayor (Bloomberg) legislated the size of soft drinks FREE PEOPLE could NOT buy, who accepted HIS decision to take away THEIR Freedom, it said all that needed to be said about how unimportant FREEDOM means to most people.

THIS ISN’T JUST AN AMERICAN PROBLEM . . . this is a GLOBAL disease that must be defeated.

In my next editorial, I will write about what we can do to win back our FREEDOMS and punish those who are taking our FREEDOMS away.

The military families have had to sue to get this administration to tell the truth that the Fort Hood shooting was a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and not “workplace violence”.

President Obama has repeatedly lied misled the American people on the terrorist attack that caused four deaths at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. 60 minutes finally decided to release part of their interview two days before the election proving conclusively that the President did not call it a terrorist attack even though the White House watched the attack in real-time.

We have $16 Trillion in debt, under President Obama that will only increase. He is on course to bring that number to over $20 Trillion. On Jay Leno he not only said this isn’t a problem he didn’t know what the number was. Remember, he said this was unpatriotic when President Bush was in office. He increased the debt in less than four years than President Bush did in eight. President Bush added $5T in 8 eight years, President Obama added $6 in less than four.

The stimulus money went largely to buddies of the left. Unions, green energy companies, and the like. The vast majority of the green energy companies have since gone bankrupt. Solyndra was given a loan that allowed the company’s shareholders were given first rights to any assets that were sold before the tax payer. The American tax payers lost a half a billion dollars in this deal. This loan was turned down under the Bush administration due to the fact that all evidence showed that company was unstable and was at high risk of not being able to repay the loan.

There is no way to tax the “rich” to cover our debts. The math just isn’t there. The tax code needs to be reformed. The base needs to be flattened to bring and the tax loop holes must be dealt with. Without this, we will never get out of this mess. President Obama will not do this. It goes against everything he believes in. He will continue the divisive rhetoric of class warfare. Which will not solve our problems.

The amount of regulation that is killing industries such as the energy sector, will only increase under President Obama. Green energy is years away from being financial viable. We still need fossil fuels to run this country. That is just fact.

I could go on and on. But time is short for me today.

When placing your ballot today, vote for the country that you want your children to inherit. A country that will finally start putting the paying off our massive debt to allow more money to flow into the economy, or a country that will only increase in debt and make growth stagnant. A country that will make its way back to individual freedoms or a country that has a government that is large enough to reach into the lunch bag of a four-year old, tell you what size soda you can buy, how much salt a restaurant can put into the food they sell, and basically run your life. They believe they can raise your families better than you can. The choice is yours.

President Obama has admitted that he can’t fix Washington. Washington must be fixed or this country as we know it, won’t survive.

When I first saw a headline about the R&R Bus being diverted for humanitarian work last week, I was not at all surprised. It fits right in with the many stories we`ve heard / read about of Mitt recognizing a need and using his considerable resources to fill that need.

My second thought – where are the O/B buses ? We know there are at least two of them.

I am on my continued road trip for my Get Out the Vote efforts. I finally made it back to my hotel room and I am sitting here watching the news. I am tired, cranky, and thinking of my home in Virginia. A home that is the talk of the nation in many ways right now due to the “perfect storm” that is due to hit sometime tomorrow.

As I am watching the news I am seeing clips of President Obama being questioned about “FrankenStorm”. His response was to remind people to get out early and vote. Which by the way in Virginia you must have cause to vote early.

They then turned to a clip of Mitt Romney talk about the same storm. He was on the stump today talking about how he was due to have a rally in Northern Virginia tomorrow morning I believe it is. He has cancelled that appearance. He mentioned that he spoke to Governor McDonnell who is in the midst of storm preparedness. Romney said he didn’t want to take away the resources that a presidential candidate would require so they can concentrate on getting ready for the storm and asked his audience to pray for the people of Virginia.

This says something about character. You can decide for yourselves whose character should be running the country.

If you saw the recent repulsive ad that Lena Dunham. I’m calling it 50 shades of Primae Noctis for comparing voting to losing one’s virginity. It’s a cry for help that makes Ms. Fluke look classy.

Recently, Mitt received a primo endorsement from Meatloaf. For conservatives and especially women, the reality of this election is a stark contrast. What we have, and what are our options? We know what we’ve had the past 4 years has been at best dysfunctional. It’s time to see other people. The courting of the GOP gave us Romney. We’re voting. We’re voting for Romney. We’re not in love, but we’re gonna do it.

The result might be best summed up by one of his most famous tunes.
Cue, “I want you…I want you..I need you..I need you…but there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you.. now don’t be sad. Don’t be sad……….’cause two out of three ain’t bad.

Obama brought absolutely NOTHING in 2008! NOTHING! He had NO record but what he did have was ‘skeletons’ in his closet our mainstream media neglected to tell us … deliberately.
McCain had MORE political clout & experience. McCain had MORE military experience. McCain even had MORE business experience! In fact, McCain had MORE foreign affairs experience!
All to NO avail!
The results are UNBELIEVABLE! INCONCEIVABLE … in that anyone would even consider to vote for someone like Barack Hussein Obama to continue to take the path that Greece took & where Europe is heading!
Stupid, gullible or ignorant arent the right words to describe these people whose mental illness is believing everything that comes out of Obamas mouth!

Right you are Ednar, but I`ll bet you`d agree that America was already on the skids heading for the fiscal cliff and numerous other problems and electing McLame would have continued that slide, just at a slower pace. It took the radical marxist and uber liar Oblamer to wake us up to just how bad it is !

In a really abstract, get our attention, abstract sense, Obama has been a kind of blessing. THAT, IMO, has been the ONLY thing he has been good for !

Wow, what a snooze fest last night. I doubt that anyone except the media (who is paid to watch) and political junkies stayed until the end of that one. Which was unfortunate for Romney, as he improved as the night went on. His opening statement was rambling and almost incoherent.

Now most of the polls are showing a Obama win by a slight margin. I have to say I agree with that. But, one must remember that a sitting president is always going to have an advantage on foreign policy compared to a challenger. That said, Obama needed a knock out last night, and he didn’t do that.

Gov. Romney was able to hold his own. Now, many conservatives are upset that he didn’t hit Libya more. I personally feel he did the right thing. Romney is in a very good position right now with 14 days left until the election. Caution was the word of the night, as I think it should have been. Romney got a little burned with pushing Libya last week. Unfairly of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that it hurt him a bit last week.

Romney needed to pass the CIC test. I believe he did that. He was steady under the constant attempts of Obama to paint him as some sort of war monger who would be pulling the trigger on Iran on day one. No one wants to go to war. That is just a caricature that is painted of the right. Romney was able to stay steady and say that he wants to try to use diplomacy first. Of course military action can’t be taken off the table, but it isn’t the first, or even second or third option.

President Obama again tried to mischaracterize Romney’s past statements, mostly by not providing the proper context. Romney (and even some of the fact checkers) have done a good job at setting the record straight on those.

What I found the most amusing was the fact that Obama kept saying that Romney agreed with much of what he was doing in the arena of foreign policy. What Obama (and the media for that matter) hasn’t mentioned is that much of what Obama has done was continuing policies put in place by President Bush. An irony that has largely been lost on the left.

Now, Romney’s closing statement was a thing of beauty:

ROMNEY: Thank you.

Bob, Mr. President, folks at Lynn University, good to be with you. I’m optimistic about the future. I’m excited about our prospects as a nation. I want to see peace. I want to see growing peace in this country. It’s our objective.

We have an opportunity to have real leadership. America’s going to have that kind of leadership and continue to promote principles of peace to make a world a safer place and make people in this country more confident that their future is secure. I also want to make sure that we get this economy going. And there are two very different paths the country can take. One is a path represented by the president, which at the end of four years would mean we’d have $20 trillion in debt heading towards Greece. I’ll get us on track to a balanced budget.

The president’s path will mean continuing declining in take-home pay. I want to make sure our take-home pay turns around and starts to grow.

The president’s path will mean continuing declining in take-home pay. I want to make sure take-home pay turns around and starts to grow. The president’s path means 20 million people out of work struggling for a good job. I’ll get people back to work with 12 million new jobs.

I’m going to make sure that we get people off of food stamps, not by cutting the program, but by getting them good jobs.

America’s going to come back, and for that to happen, we’re going to have to have a president who can work across the aisle. I was in a state where my legislature was 87 percent Democrat. I learned how to get along on the other side of the aisle. We’ve got to do that in Washington. Washington is broken. I know what it takes to get this country back, and will work with good Democrats and good Republicans to do that.

This nation is the hope of the earth. We’ve been blessed by having a nation that’s free and prosperous thanks to the contributions of the greatest generation. They’ve held a torch for the world to see – the torch of freedom and hope and opportunity. Now, it’s our turn to take that torch. I’m convinced we’ll do it.

We need strong leadership. I’d like to be that leader with your support. I’ll work with you. I’ll lead you in an open and honest way, and I ask for your vote. I’d like to be the next president of the United States to support and help this great nation and to make sure that we all together remain America as the hope of the earth.

Thank you so much.

I especially loved how Romney kept bringing it back to economic issues. On this Romney and I agree 100% – a economically weak America is a danger to the entire world. I was very happy to see him bringing that up and bringing it up often. The two are very closely connected.

Romney needed to be bloodied last night to change the momentum in the race – Obama couldn’t accomplish that. Obama may have a slight win last night – but it seems it is too little too late.

I’m very confused about how debates are won or lost. Obama is declared the winner on…what? He attacked Mitt more? Obama was the one putting me to sleep. Teachers,..and then there was the teachers…we need more teachers, and do you get points on just how you LOOK? I’m confused. Obama looked almost mean at times….His one big point was the “Where have you been…we don’t use horses anymore…yada we have subs…yada..) Everyone knew Mitt wasn’t wanting more horses…probably more nuclear subs. But that’s the highlight? Pathetic. People that give Obama the “win” on that snarky remark are not paying much attention.

Mitt won..put in loads more information and facts than Obama, and on substance the comparison was remarkably more succinct from Mitt. But he smiled. Guess that’s the reason he lost. He didn’t get into the “fight” mode…and Obama did.

For a future President, which would we rather have…an “angry young man” or a President that is measured? Obama looked petty angry last night. While many of us would have liked to see the “fight” …it’s best not to fight a pit bull. It’s best to just tie him up. Let Obama go retire to his “Presidential mutil-million dollar museum in Hawaii…or will it be Chicago? Sadly, like Bill Cliinton, we will be tortured with this man the rest of our lives whether he “wins” or ‘loses.”

Debates are won by points. In presidential politics debate tend to be one by your own ideology it seems. R’s thought Romeny won, D’s thought Obama won. Most times it is a draw. Obama landed some punches, which is why I gave him a slight edge. But as I said, too little too late. Mitt can win if he stays focused and makes no major mistake.

Spot on Joyanna; it is stupid to award victory in a debate to the one who lied the most, even if he did sound more forceful, cast dagger eyes and condescend at every opportunity. That is what the left loves and why they gave the wins to Oblamer in debates #2 and #3. He was no more than a well prepared child – a lying child !

We reject the innuendo that some critics have heaped on the president. We don’t think he’s a business-hating socialist. We don’t think he’s intent on weakening the American military. We don’t think he’s unpatriotic. And, no, we don’t think he was born outside the United States.

But after reflecting on his four years in the White House, we also don’t think that he’s the best qualified candidate in this race.

This is far from a full-throated endorsement of Governor Romney, matter of fact they flat-out say they don’t particularly like many of his stances, but they know that President Obama is just not up to the task. The Tennessean feels the same way, as they have also endorsed Romney.

I give President Obama a slight win on last night’s debate. Most of the polling on that agrees with my assessment. President Obama seems to excel in this type of format, it is in his wheelhouse, and he got stronger as the night went along.

Romney did make some mistakes. A very big one was bringing up the 47% comment during his last time being able to speak. It is amazing that it took that long to come up, and I am sure that Romney wanted to bring it out himself and give it context and an explanation. The problem is that President Obama was allowed to end on that note without a rebuttal, very bad for Governor Romney.

Mitt also used the word terror instead of terrorism. While it may not seem like it, there is a big difference between the two words and Candy Crowley was only too happy to exploit that mistake and make it seem that President Obama said the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack the following day, which of course he did not. That has been widely cleared up, but there will be some low information voters who will only hear that soundbite.

Now, if you look more closely at the numbers and the end reaction of the debate, the win for the President didn’t help him. The numbers when broken down by economy, jobs, and debt reduction all broke to Romney by a very healthy margin:

So, while President Obama won the debate in style points he didn’t do enough to stop the bleeding that is becoming more and more apparent, people are no longer buying that he has a plan that will fix what is wrong and has a vision of what to do help:

Obama: 38% yes, 61% no
Romney: 49% yes, 50% no

While it isn’t a great number for Romney either, it will still drive independents to ultimately pull the lever for him over a failed presidency that we have all seen for the past four years.

President Obama needed to win decisively last night, he did not accomplish that. These MSNBC undecideds are leaning Romney even after thinking that he was edged out in a debate.

Style and Hope & Change carried the day four years ago. But we have heard that story all before. He now has a record to run on. That record is not pretty and more than likely will not be enough to carry the day. As much as I didn’t believe it, I think Governor Romney may just pull this off on November 6. We have almost three weeks left, anything can happen. President Obama may have won the debate last night, but he didn’t help himself convince people that he is capable of the leading this country during this very difficult time in our history.

Here are some former Obama voters:

“Forceful, compassionate, presidential,” one participant said.
“Confident and realistic,” said another.
“Presidential,” another told Luntz.
“Enthusiastic,” another reacted.
“Our next president,” one man said.
“Dynamo, winner,” said one more.

Obama is given the win only in the way Biden was given the win in his debate, they both lied and both interrupted and THAT`s what the left loves. Give it to Obama on “style points”.

Barry lied about everything and lied boldly, aggressively ! Just because he was smoother and far better prepared and engaged than the first debate, HE LIED ! And he gave few details about how his policies have worked or will in the future, while Mitt gave far more details !

I`m sorry, but you`ll have to color me incredulous; I don`t give victories to liars !

You used the perfect word, jacg, “uncertainty”. The single most important word to future job creators is “certainty”. Good, bad or indifferent, if employers have certainty in what`s coming at them, they can make preparations to hire, expand or whatever to get themselves back in production !

I have come to believe that Mitt and Paul are the right men at the right time to get America off her knees and back to being the shining city on the hill again !

I am so glad they did this. I kept commenting on his body language last night while I was watching. It was not just awful, it was outright rude. He kept looking down, looking away, and pursing his lips. He wanted to be just about anywhere other than where he was.

Jonah Goldburg tweeted after the debate (paraphrased), “the media can blame themselves for Obama`s poor performance because in 4 years, they`ve never asked him any tough questions.

pResident “Present” entered the debate almost totally unprepared. All he had was dem talking points, false narratives, lies and distortions. The Narcissist-in-Chief, the Man Child Who Would Be King showed himself to be immature, thin-skinned and unqualified, a disgrace to the Nation and to the Office of the President. He stepped on stage thinking it was all about him and just may have left it realizing it was done to him, a serious ass kicking ! He deserved it !

Many Obamabots today have said debate #2 will see a different incumbent, better prepared; they better hope so, but they need to expect an even better prepared challenger. We can bet on the latter showing up !

This guy is upset that Mitt and Ann Romney don’t come out and shake their hands and hug them while they are out collecting garbage.

I have never met my garbage collector. I am normally busy when they come around and most of my neighbors are at work. My garbage is collected about noon or so, if I am not mistaken.

Now Ann and Mitt do pay property taxes on this home. This is their home in California, which they don’t live in full-time. If I am not mistaken those taxes are quite high. Those taxes pay his salary as well as his benefits. If this is the worse thing that someone can say about Mitt Romney, I would say that he is someone that belongs in elected office considering some of the other imbeciles we deal with.

Hmmm, most garbage collectors have NO time to shake anyones hands but wave if we wave or make eye contact!
They are hurrying to get thru their jobs so fast they are running to pick up the garbage from the next house!
I dont know my garbage men or women. They seem to exchange shifts with their constituents in the same area but different blocks.
Just as I dont know my postman, my policeman, the guy behind the counter at our McDonald’s or the waitresses at the variety of restaurants we frequent. Call it my Alzheimer s moment or just blitzing out to enjoy the day … I dont know I dont care & this guy needs to get a life.
A dog … maybe! Hug a kitten or a puppy.

He is absolutely right, we need to get people off of welfare and back to work. Helping people subsist may seem compassionate, but it is a difficult life. People are far better off getting a better paying job so they can provide for themselves.

I knew that Rs were muting dim campaign ads and some rightie ones too, but to hear that NinnyNanny Pilousi does it too; That is RICH !

Zero hasn`t been going to his own Intel briefings for some time. Has he been ducking other meetings or otherwise snubbing “important people” ? I would guess – YES ! Turn about is fair play ……. He probably has heard about the muting by now and is likely incensed about it, but I had to snicker when I first heard.

This truly cannot be said enough so I decided to cover this information again. Last month Vice President Biden made the following comment:

“And, by the way, I’ve been saying this for 30 years. And I’m glad to see that Congressman Ryan likes his dad, too, and quotes his dad. I mean that sincerely. But my dad [had] a lot of wisdom. Every time someone tells you, say, ‘Look, let me tell you what’s important to me, what I value.’ My dad would go, ‘No, no. Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.’”

So lets take a look at how The Vice President values charity:

Adjusted
Gross Income Charity

1998 $215,432 $195

1999 $210,797 $120

2000 $219,953 $360

2001 $220,712 $360

2002 $227,811 $260

2003 $231,375 $260

2004 $234,271 $380

2005 $321,379 $380

2006 $248,459 $380

2007 $319,853 $995

2008 $269,256 $1885

2009 $333,182 $4820

2010 $379,178 $5350

2011 $379,035 $5540

Total $3,810,693 $21,285

For a grand total of .005%

The average for the Romney family is 13.45%.

So what is it that you value Mr. Vice President? It certainly isn’t charitable giving.

The Obama’s were very stingy with charitable giving as well, that is until he decided to run for public office on the federal level. They could afford a $2 million home, but not too much for charity. I hope that his charitable giving stays at current levels or increases once he leaves the presidency, as he will be making millions and millions per year once he does.

You do know, right, that VP Biden is the least wealthy member of Congress?
You do realize right, that unlike many other members of Congress, Mr. Biden has always turned down paying board/consultancy jobs, and as a result, his salary constitutes the majority of his income?

As far as I can recall, his only external income was from his book.
Discounting the value of his home, Mr. Biden actually is still in debt.

Funny you should criticize Mr. Obama, when his charitable record has been steadily increasing over the years, and who, while wealthy, still have to work to pay his bills.

Especially when you consider the fact that Mr. Romney’s record of charity is only seen from his last two partial filings (yes, partial, because he omitted the release of the details of his 21 – at least – blocker corporations/form – and we know these corporations exist because he did not file the 990-T), and no one knows how much he actually gave to charity prior to his presidential bid. Even his trustee acknowledged that his 2011 filings were engineered to fulfill an earlier announced objective.

yes because when you make only $200K per year you are the “least wealthy”. Did you read that after you typed it? You are justifying him giving $195 out of a salary of $215 because other members in congress make more than he does. He lives in DE. The cost of living is not that high.

He is well below average for charitable giving. The majority of the country (who generally will make far less then him) gives much more in Charity than the Bidens. As soon as he is done with the Vice Presidency, he will go back to giving next to nothing again.

That is who is he is. He would rather that the government take money from you and I to help the needy. He has little desire to do it for himself.

Indeed. In his social circle, Mr. Biden is effectively a pauper. He even took loans to pay for his children’s education when he could have easily accepted one of the many paying jobs that members of Congress are routinely offered (and accepts).

Instead of sitting on your high horse and arbitrarily making judgements about the ‘values’ of others, and conveniently ignoring his and his wife’s volunteer work over the years and service to the nation, I have a question for you.

What values were you, along with the majority of your party members, exhibiting as you watched in silence as a segment of your base go on a four-year character assassination campaign against Mr. Obama? What kind of value does it show when you dispute the identity of his father, the morals of his mother, his childhood memories/history, his allegiance to the country, his religious belief, his education – all without a single piece of credible evidence, and in the face of a ton of evidence to the contrary?

While we’re on the subject of values, how do you feel of the government sanctioned torture of innocent Iraqis and Afghans? What do you feel about our soldiers and contractors smashing the feet of a taxi driver (as his mother and three sisters stood outside the prison) until he died from shock? The doctor who conducted the autopsy said his feet looked like it was run over by a truck.

What about the man who had his penis sliced dozens of times in one of the famous rendition exercise, until the doctor who did his autopsy said it looked looked like butchered meat?

Things became so bad, even the military prosecutors assigned to Guantanamo resigned after seeing the level of torture we inflicted on innocents, whose only crime was that they were easy fodder for the warlords to sell to the American forces (at $5,000 each). Even Rumsfeld had to resigned after the German threw a fit after receiving a batch of evidence (including, reportedly though unconfirmed, a video of an interrogation). Until today, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld have to remain cautious of their travel arrangement as several countries are eager to arrest them for war crimes.

Where are your values here? Why are none of you demanding justice for these people, or holding the guilty responsible? Instead, you pick on the poorest member of Congress to show your values.

Col Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, had this to say about the matter.
” You compare Bill Clinton’s peccadilloes for which he was impeached to George Bush’s high crimes and misdemeanors or Dick Cheney’s high crimes and misdemeanors, and I think they pale in significance.”

You should read Col. WIlkerson’s court affidavit – which no one from the Bush administration had dared to challenge – and then speak about values again.

Yes because all paupers make $200K per year. That is five times the national average. Millions upon millions in this country wish they were that poor.

Speaking of rendition, where you were when Clinton started the practice? Where are you that Obama is continuing the practice? I have spoken out about it from day one. Waterboarding is nothing compared to what happens to people when we leave it up to countries who could care less about human rights.

As usual you confuse issues to try and take away from the issue at hand. Biden is a cheap. He holds unto his money, but spends ours like it is going out of style. There is nothing moral about putting our children into some much debt that their quality of life will be lower.

I have spoken out about the spending regardless of party. You, on the other hand, seem to have no problem with Obama continuing the practices in Afghanistan. He has even picked up the level of drone strikes. Killing al-Awaki without any due process was unconstitutional. The man was an American citizen and his rights were violated. So when you start screaming about it when it comes from both sides, I suggest you ask yourself why your outrage is only when it someone you don’t agree with is in office.

I could care less about the republican party. I care about my principles. You should try it.

So let me get this straight.
Mr. Biden’s honorable decision of rejecting private sector positions and monetary gains should be completely discounted, and instead, we should judge his ‘values’ solely based upon the amount of money he donated, regardless of the fact that that may very well be all that he could afford? Nevermind his distinguished public service career and volunteer works.

As for rendition, it was an unofficial practice that first came into being during the Reagan administration, and subsequently put into law during the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. However, it took a turn for the worse when it devolved from a strategic tool to something sinister when the George W. Bush administration green-lighted the torture of suspects, many of them who were sold to American forces by its ‘allies’.

And the extent of the torture goes far, far, beyond waterboarding, as I have previously indicated. There are other documented cases of tortures as well – truly horrifying torture that brings into question the sanity of the people conducting them. I was traumatized just reading about the inhuman brutalities these people were subjected to.

As for Mr. Biden spending ‘your money’, please do not confuse rhetoric with facts. I continue to hear charges that President Obama increased our debts by a further $5 trillion dollars with his reckless spending. But here are the facts: under the Obama administration, the federal government has shrunk for the first time in 50 years. The growth of federal spending is also the lowest in over 50 years. So where did the $5 trillion come from?

Well, $1.2 trillion came from former President George W. Bush’s last budget. Another trillion came from the two unpaid wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (btw, these two wars were the first time the United States has entered into a war without raising its taxes to pay for it). Another $800 billion (approx) came from welfare net to protect the ten million new jobless Americans (almost five million in President Bush last year in office, and over for million in President Obama’s first year in office). The automatic stabilizers also kicked in 2009 to prevent a systemic national economic collapse. There is also the interest payments for the debts incurred by previous administrations.

As for drone killings, murder is murder, and should always be avoided. However, if there is a need to engage enemy combatant, then using a drone is always preferable to using our soldiers.

As for al-Awlaki, a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative with dual citizenship (Yemeni and U.S.), you do realize that he has declared a holy war on the United States and was declared an enemy combatant long before his death? He was an American in name only. His allegiance has long shifted, and he was actively involved in terrorist activities. While still in U.S., he was also linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the soldier who killed 13 people at Fort Hood.

“America was my home. I was a preacher of Islam involved in non-violent Islamic activism. However with the American invasion of Iraq and continued U.S. aggression against Muslims, I could not reconcile between living in the U.S. and being a Muslim, and I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other Muslim.”

How do you even begin to defend him, I do not understand. For the record though. the kill order was made by the CIA, and was approved by the NSC, ODNI, and Senate Committee on Homeland Security. Only after that was it sent to the White House for final approval. Considering the legal steps taken here, how could you say it was unconstitutional? Even the judge who presided over al-Awlaki’s father lawsuit makes no mention of it being unconstitutional.

(https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2010cv1469-31)
“Here, plaintiff asks this Court to do exactly what the D.C. Circuit forbid in El-Shifa — assess the merits of the President’s (alleged) decision to launch an attack on a foreign target. Although the “foreign target” happens to be a U.S. citizen, the same reasons that counseled against judicial resolution of the plaintiffs’ claims in El-Shifa apply with equal force here. Just as in El-Shifa, any judicial determination as to the propriety of a military attack on Anwar Al-Aulaqi would “‘require this court to elucidate the . . . standards that are to guide a President when he evaluates the veracity of military intelligence.

Indeed, that is just what plaintiff has asked this Court to do. See Compl., Prayer for Relief (d) (requesting that the Court order the defendants to “disclose the criteria used in determining whether the government will carry out the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen”). But there are no judicially manageable standards by which courts can endeavor to assess the President’s interpretation of military intelligence and his resulting decision — based on that intelligence — whether to use military force against a terrorist target overseas.”

Finally, on your claim of not caring about the Republican Party and following your principles. Look at your posting history. You are, for all intents and purpose, a cheerleader for the GOP. If you truly are guided by your principles, then you should be fair in your criticisms, questions, and commentary.

You should question why Mr. Romney is so secretive about his tax returns. You should ask why his office shredded thousands of documents when he left the office of Governor of Massachusetts. You should ask why the Heritage Foundation did a 180% turn on individual mandates within the space of less than a year (yes, they were actively supporting individual mandates up to 2007). You should question why Mr. Romney’s small donors only constitute 14% of his donor base, and why his campaign is being financed by a small group of wealthy elites.

You should also ask Mr. Ryan why, after four years, his multiple budget proposals still do not contain details of budget cuts. Or how he intends to give tax cuts worth accumulatively over $5 trillion, and an increase of $2 trillion in defense spending, yet still fully balancing the budget.

Finally, you should also ask why tax cuts/trickle down economic, a concept that has no documented, empirical economic merits, continues to be the central dogma of the GOP economic policy.

Once you do these and more, then you climb on your high horse and question me about my principles.

First, who did I vote for in 2000? It wasn’t President Bush. I started no wars. I was against going into Iraq. You keep up bringing up party. I don’t care which party does the spending, I want it stopped so the next generation has a chance to live in country with the same chance to fulfill their dreams as the people who came before them.

I will go after people who are republicans. I don’t care what party they come. It means nothing to me. President Obama has done more deficit spending than any other president in history. That is a fact, it can’t be disputed. The gravy train is over. We can’t keep spending money we don’t have and expect our kids and grandchildren to have a decent shot at a future. $1.293 trillion in 2010, $1.300 trillion in 2011, $1.327 trillion in 2012, and $901 billion in 2013. No other president has ever spent a trillion dollars of borrowed money in one year. He did three times. He also added to Bush’s spending on 09 with a stimulus that had little effect on the economy. The recession technically ended in June of 09. None of the money was spent before then. Deficit spending actually went down under Bush. Money into the treasury increased for the majority of his presidency. Another fact that the left likes to forget about.

If a democrat is running who is a fiscal hawk, I will vote for him/her. I have voted for many democrats over the course of my life. We cannot sustain 47% of people not paying taxes in this country for much longer. We need to flatten the rates and get rid of the loopholes. My taxes will increase by doing that and I am perfectly fine with that. What I want in return for my higher taxes is a more responsible government that isn’t throwing my money away willy nilly. It is criminal the amount of waste our government allows to occur.

People don’t have citizenship “in name only”, they are citizens or they are not. It is a legal thing, not a state of mind. They had plenty of time to go into a court to have him stripped of citizenship and did not. The same thing with Adam Ghadhan. No American citizen should ever be put on a hit list without having due process in court. I don’t care what they have done. The fact that al-Awaki made all those videos declaring his intention to wage war on the US and its citizens made the fact that they didn’t go into court worse, not better. They clearly had the evidence to back up the government claims. The constitution doesn’t cover some people, it covers all Americans. Plenty of people in this country do horrific things, they still have the right to due process. What is stopping them from putting you or I on a hit list then? Closing your eyes or making excuses about allowing the federal government to kill someone without due process is a slippery slope that no one should be wanting to go down.

I could care less about Romney’s tax returns, I don’t care about anyone’s tax returns, I think it is stupid that they are released by anyone. I also could care less that he has money in foreign investments. Until recently I had some of retirement savings in foreign investments. I took them out because it seems more likely then not the Euro is going to go south. Many people across the country have investments in foreign countries. It is actually a good strategy generally, especially considering that many foreign currencies are stronger than ours at the moment. Where he puts his money is his business. As long as he claims it on his tax returns and pays the taxes that are legally due, it means nothing. Most 401K’s in this country have options for foreign investments, why should you and I be allowed to partake in them, but someone who is running for president not be able to?

If someone can’t live on $200K per year, there is a problem. People who make far less money give more of a percentage of their salary to charity. I gave a larger percentage of my income to charity when I was in college and living hand to mouth. It is something that I have always believed in, If he couldn’t “afford it” in the year before he was tapped as VP, why could he all of sudden afford it? He gave it because of how it looked. The man owns a home that is worth several million dollars. He isn’t poor by any stretch of the imagination.

You do realize that our tax dollars are going to pay rent on his second home that he rented out to the secret service right? While it may be perfectly legal, it shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t be making money off secret service protection that we are paying for. I would say that no matter who they are.